Joe Shawhan learned to coach from a goalie’s point of view

A wise broadcaster and probably a Vezina trophy winner once said, “agoaltender sees the game differently.” In the case of Soo Indians headcoach Joe Shawhan, that is definitely true.

It’s no secret that Shawhan is a goalie by trade. The locals up inSault Ste. Marie know him well. Shawhan rose to stardom playing highschool hockey for Sault Ste. Marie High School, where he led his team tothe state finals one year, only to fall to Trenton High School. Heplayed goal under two exceptional coaches at Lake Superior StateUniversity – Frank Anzalone and Jeff Jackson, both of whom would leadthe Lakers to NCAA championships.

And in between, Shawhan also played for an earlier version of what isnow the North American Hockey League’s Soo Indians, in the NorthernOntario Hockey League, which churned out such stars as Denny Lambert andChris Simon.

But, why goaltending? What compelled Shawhan to want to play a positionthat takes a special individual to play?

“When I started playing, the guys were older than me,” says Shawhan, nowin his sixth season as head coach of the Indians. “I like the positionand I never played another one again.”

Shawhan didn’t take the traditional route of playing travel hockey whenhe was growing up. Instead, he learned more in high school and at thecollege level. He certainly was not a naturally gifted goaltender, ashe says, but had to work harder.

When Shawhan arrived on the scene at Lake Superior, he immediately won astarting job and helped the Lakers win a couple of games right off thebat against a very good Western Michigan team in the early ’80’s.

“I made a good first impression and I started right away and playedpretty much the rest of my four years at Lake Superior,” said Shawhan.Shawhan learned a lot from Anzelone and Jackson, who was an assistantduring the time Shawhan played.

“Anzelone was hard-nosed as a coach, very drill-oriented,” saysShawhan. “If we lost we didn’t execute properly and that was theattitude instilled in us,” he says. “We practiced very hard and westudied the game more than the Michigan’s and Michigan State’s,” hesaid.

Shawhan says he isn’t into drilling his players and overworking them inpractice, but he remembers learning from Anzelone about a hockeyplayer’s physical aspects and he still believes in the philosophy.“I’m very big into physical aspects of players, what makes them up, whatthey’re made of and their nutritional habits, which is important for allhockey players and athletes in general.”

After his playing career at LSSU, he had a tryout with the CalgaryFlames which didn’t pan out. Shawhan says he wasn’t totally surprisedthat he didn’t make the team because he says he was “a marginal goalie”who had to study the game more closely than other goalies.

He says he was coaxed back into coaching hockey at the bantam level andwhat really thrilled him the most was winning a national title at thatlevel. He went to coach the Soo Indians AAA Midgets and was a part-timeassistant at Lake Superior.

Then the NAHL and the Soo Indians called and Shawhan was back.

Shawhan describes himself as a cross between Anzelone and Jackson incoaching style. He likes aggressiveness on his teams and feels he andother coaches in the league do a good job of developing players for thecollegiate level.

“We don’t always get the top players here because so many of the topguys are from the Detroit area and they stay down there,” says Shawhan.“We go for more stronger character kids, guys who aren’t going to berebellious types.”

That has shown through, considering some of the recent stars Shawhan hasdeveloped, particularly in goal, with Ryan Miller of MSU, BobbyRevermann, Nathan Wheeler and Cam Ellsworth, to name a few.

Miller says he really valued his stay with the Indians.

“It was a good, positive learning experience for me,” says Miller, inhis sophomore season at Michigan State and one of the top goaltenders inthe country. “Coach Shawhan taught us how to see the game a certain wayand helped me develop aspects of my game that are paying off now.”

Miller talked about how he sees the game from the net and much of thathe learned naturally, but a lot he also learned from Shawhan.

“Coach helped me work on timing, in terms of when to come out of the netand helped me judge the speed of the game better, which was differentfrom the levels I played at before the NAHL,” says Miller. “It preparedme very well for the speed in the CCHA.”

Shawhan wants players to see his vision of the game too, much of whichinvolves noticing more of the motion of the game and which way plays aremoving or anticipating where plays will move.

But, he also likes to bring in coaches with other styles as well, who’veplayed positions besides goal. This, he says, allows players to see thegame from many perspectives.

“I see more of the formation of a play, rather than one player. That’swhat a goalie does and I still do that even as a coach,” says Shawhan.“If you focus on an individual as a goalie, you fail. You have to watchfor where the breakdowns are going to happen.”

Shawhan is very humble in talking about the goalies he’s helped developwith the Soo, not believing he’s developed better goalies, but certainlybelieving that he and his staff can understand goalies better than anyother team.

“We don’t do anything magical,” he says. “We help them pick up theirconfidence levels and we see how they react to different things.”Shawhan says he and the Indians coaching staff look to developconsistency in goalies, helping them learn different aspects of thegame, maybe tweaking their games a bit.

Case in point – Shawhan helping Miller work on timing and speed.His current goalie, Cam Elser, is leading the NAHL in wins and shutouts.In the same vein as Jackson, a former goalie himself and othernetminders who have gotten behind the bench (Ron Low formerly ofEdmonton and Bob Daniels of Ferris State to name a few) Shawhan knowsthe game from where he played the game.

Like an artist or painter, a goalie sees something the rest of usdon’t. Maybe that’s why they make good coaches, just like Joe Shawhan.